Building Support for Restorative Justice

Strategies for capturing community support for restorative initiatives.

Fearmonger and Through The Glass: Books that undermine Harper's omnibus crime bill

from the review by Matthew Behrens in rabble.ca: It's a rare event in the Canadian publishing world when non-fiction books line up in sync with current events, but these two titles are perfectly timed as Canadians consider the serious consequences of the Harper government's dramatic omnibus crime bill, one that will radically alter an already deteriorating judicial system. ....Those who'd like an inkling of what could come down the pipe can do no better than read Paula Mallea's appropriately named Fearmonger, an outstanding overview of recently passed and proposed crime legislation.

Standing Committee

from Wilma Derksen's entry on Bittersweet: I am meeting with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights this morning. This is what I will be saying. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to have this opportunity to address you and the rest of the committee regarding Bill C-10, The Safe Streets & Community Act. ....My daughter, Candace, was 13 years old when she was abducted and found murdered six weeks later. We lived without knowing the details of what happened for two decades.

Review: Walking the talk: Developing ethics frameworks for the practice of restorative justice

by Lynette Parker While restorative justice is a theory that encompasses a set of values for how justice should be done, maintaining those values and the restorative focus can become difficult in day-to-day practice. People working in restorative justice organisations – whether staff or volunteers – make a myriad of decisions related to practices each day. Such decisions may be related to work with clients, work with other organisations or internal processes and interactions. How can they make these decisions while maintaining the integrity of their restorative justice programme? Susan Sharpe seeks to answer this question with Walking the talk: Developing ethics frameworks for the practice of restorative justice. In the 62 page publication, Sharpe sets out a process that organisations and individual practitioners can use to develop an ethics framework to empower and guide decisionmaking. In doing so, she avoids the contentious issue of setting standards by developing the steps in a process that each organisation can use to develop a framework that has direct meaning for it and the various issues that it faces.

How victim rights became a juggernaut shaping spending, laws and the future of punishment

from the article by Alan Prendergast in Denver Westword: Newly elected as a state representative, Pete Lee hit the Capitol last January fired up with big ideas. The biggest of them all was the restorative-justice bill he introduced shortly after the session began.

Polls show public support for restorative justice

This is excellent news. Thank you for sharing the good work of the Prison Reform Trust in the UK. This organization is smart in polling [...]

Prison Reform Trust poll finding: 88% support restorative justice after the riots

by Lizzie Nelson. In 1998 the British Crime Survey found that 41% of victims said they would agree to meet the offender, if this was offered to them, and 58% would accept reparation from the offender. In September this year, following the riots that took place across England in August 2011, an ICM poll, commissioned by the Prison Reform Trust (www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk<http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk>) found that 88% of the public thought victims of crime should have the right to tell offenders the impact of their crime; 94% believe offenders should make amends by doing unpaid work in the community; and 71% believe the victim should have a say in how the offender should make amends for the harm they have caused.

Breaking the Cycle: The Government's response published

from the website of the Restorative Justice Council: On 21 June 2011 the Ministry of Justice published the Government’s response to the consultation responses received to the sentencing green paper Breaking the Cycle. Although some areas of proposed policy have changed – for example in relation to the additional discount for early guilty pleas – the message on restorative justice remains strong.

Right and proper: Conservatives and criminal justice

from the article in The Economist: The word commonly used to describe a politician who publicly announces he wants to send fewer criminals to prison is “loser”. But back in February there was David Williams, president of Kentucky’s Senate, speaking in favour of a bill that would do just that. The bill in question would steer non-violent offenders towards drug treatment rather than jail. It is projected to save $422m over the next decade, and will invest about half those savings in improving the state’s treatment, parole and probation programmes. Mr Williams, who believes Kentucky “incarcerates too many people at too great a cost,” praised the bill for recognising “the possibility for forgiveness and redemption and change in someone’s life”. It passed the Republican-controlled Senate 38-0, and on May 17th Mr Williams went on to win the Republican nomination for governor.

The power of penal populism in New Zealand from 1999 to 2008

from Tess Bartlett's abstract to her thesis: This thesis explains the rise and power of penal populism in contemporary New Zealand society. It argues that the rise of penal populism can be attributed to social, economic and political changes that have taken place in New Zealand since the post­war years. These changes undermined the prevailing penal­welfare logic that had dominated policymaking in this area since 1945. It examines the way in which ‘the public’ became more involved in the administration of penal policy from 1999 to 2008. The credibility given to a law and order referendum in 1999, which drew attention to crime victims and ‘tough on crime’ discourse, exemplified their new role. In its aftermath, greater influence was given to the public and groups speaking on its behalf.

RJ ,policing and Big Society

Very encouraging speech by the Honourable MP! Big society may also be taking in other culture not only in the UK. Even in UK there [...]

Restorative justice, policing and the Big Society

from the speech by The Rt Hon Nick Herbert, Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice in England: There has been much talk about restorative justice. We’ve seen encouraging pilots and there’s talk about it not only in this country, but around the world. So why is it that something that offers such encouraging results should not have taken a greater hold in our system? Well, I think it is because we’ve seen evolving over the last few years a criminal justice system that has been very much directed from the centre. We’ve been through the recent era of targets and what has eloquently been described as ‘deliverology’. The idea of managing from the centre, of close direction in order to try and drive up the performance of public services. This was done for benign reasons, but we all know what the consequences were.

No longer a victim!

Kathleen,      My heart bleeds for you! I cannot imagine the emotions that you are feeling right now. I was once of victim of Robert Power, [...]

Reply

Hi Kathleen, one of the things I can do is listen and I would like to listen to your journey that led to the decision [...]

Meeting with my son's murderer

I will soon be meeting with my son's murderer. I stand alone on this decision (my family doesn't understand that I am doing this to [...]

Governor Jerry Brown: Can he support restorative justice?

by Lisa Rea Jerry Brown has returned to California Governor's office in 2011 having first been elected the youngest governor in the state in 1975. What's changed? The incarceration rate has skyrocketed. In 1986 the state prison population was at 59,000. Now the state incarcerates 173, 000 inmates in its state prisons (Legislative Analyst Office, 2006). Although editorial writer Dan Morain of the Sacramento BEE speaks of Brown's close ties to the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (the prison guard union with more members than most unions in the state) I believe Brown will not be tied to the failed policies of the past. I expect something more.

[More sensible ideas from the US!] Prison reform: A smart way for states to save money and lives

By Newt Gingrich and Pat Nolan With nearly all 50 states facing budget deficits, it's time to end business as usual in state capitols and for legislators to think and act with courage and creativity. We urge conservative legislators to lead the way in addressing an issue often considered off-limits to reform: prisons. Several states have recently shown that they can save on costs without compromising public safety by intelligently reducing their prison populations.

Tough on Crime and Smart

Thank you for this post (and article). This is a smart response to crime that points the way to restorative justice processes and real justice [...]

Crossing the divide

from Howard Zehr's Restorative Justice Blog: It has often been my experience that restorative justice can span the conservative-liberal divide. Concerns for victims and for reducing the costs of imprisonment are often common to both. The concept of offenders facing up to what they have done makes intuitive sense to many. Values such as responsibility, respect and relationship are often shared along the spectrum. What we mean by these values and ideas, however, and what motivates us to embrace them, are crucial issues. The lessons to be gleaned from the movement against indeterminate sentencing in the U.S. are instructive. Eventually both progressives and conservatives came together to replace indeterminate sentences with determinate sentences motivated by a just deserts philosophy. The resulting lengthened mandatory sentences dramatically increased the prison population. While there was some confluence of policy positions, the underlying values and motivations of the various parties were quite different. The results have been in many ways catastrophic.

Robert Powers' case & his victims

As I read the comments by Robert's pen pal, Ines, as well as the comments by Ron Keine, I realize how complicated this case is. [...]

US national conservatives unveil Right On Crime initiative

from the article by William Lutz on Lone Star Report: One of the most interesting, albeit quiet, developments in the Texas policy world has been the bipartisan consensus that has developed on criminal justice since about 2005. Basically, the idea is that putting non-violent offenders in prison for technical violations wastes public funds and that rehabilitation and restitution should play larger roles in the criminal justice system. This approach places more emphasis on controlling costs in criminal justice by focusing incarceration for the most dangerous and violent offenders. ....A group of national conservatives led by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, Russell Keene of the American Conservative Union, and former Attorney General Ed Meese unveiled the “Right On Crime” initiative and website. The group held a conference call this morning to unveil the website.